WO2008100045A1

WO2008100045A1 - Contactless information processor

Info

Publication number: WO2008100045A1
Application number: PCT/KR2008/000773
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jeong Yoo Kim; Gi Myoung Kim
Original assignee: WISECATCH CO Ltd
Current assignee: WISECATCH CO Ltd
Priority date: 2007-02-12
Filing date: 2008-02-11
Publication date: 2008-08-21
Anticipated expiration: 2009-08-12
Also published as: KR100823678B1

Abstract

Provided is a contactless information processor, and particularly, a contactless information processor mounted in a card slot of a mobile communication terminal for recognizing a smart card or a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag that approaches the mobile communication terminal to provide various services. The contactless information processor includes an antenna connection port for connection to a loop antenna for a communication terminal; a power connection port connected to a power supply for the communication terminal for supplying power; a control logic for receiving a signal from the loop antenna to read at least one radio frequency identification tag, and controlling transmit of information on the read radio frequency identification tag to the exterior; a memory for storing an operating system for the control logic; a data connection port for transmitting the information on the read radio frequency identification tag to the exterior to be processed and displayed by the communication terminal, under control of the control logic; and a processor package detachably mounted to the communication terminal according to a predetermined structural standard.

Description

[DESCRIPTION] [Invention Title]

CONTACTLESS INFORMATION PROCESSOR [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a contactless information processor, and more particularly, to a contactless information processor mounted in a card slot of a mobile communication terminal for reading information from a smart card or a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag that approaches the mobile communication terminal or for writing necessary information to the smart card or the RFID tag. [Background Art]

A smart card is normally made of plastic and since it is the same size as a credit card it can be conveniently put into a wallet and carried anytime, anywhere. The term "smart card" is used with several meanings in various application fields. An International Standards Organization (ISO) standard generally uses a term "Integrated Circuit (IC) card" that refers to a card with one or more ICs. The Smart Card Forum uses a term "smart card" that refers to an integrated circuit card with memory capable of making decisions. Terms emphasizing a computational functionality, such as a "chip card", a "microprocessor card", and a "CPU card" are also used. Furthermore, terms "super smart card" and "crypto card" having storage, computation, and enhanced security functionalities are used. The term "smart card" is defined as, at least, a card that stores identification information and connects to an external reader for recognizing the identification information, in a contact or contactless manner.

A subscriber identity module ("SIM") card is an example of the smart card defined as above and is mounted to a mobile communication terminal for storing personal information for various services including authentication, authorization, and accounting for a user of the terminal. The SIM card originates from Europe where Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) has been adopted. For example, a communication provider issues a SIM card to a subscriber, who carries only the issued SIM card, purchases a mobile communication terminal anytime anywhere, e.g., at a department store or a supermarket, and mounts the SIM card to the terminal, for desired services. Meanwhile, a term "user identity module (UIM) " is used in the field of code division multiple access (CDMA) merely to distinguish it from the SIM despite the fact that they share the same function. A term "user subscriber identity module (USIM) " has a broad concept to accommodate both the SIM and the UIM. The USIM is becoming a practical scheme of implementing roaming using different wireless connection standards, such as ITU's synchronous and asynchronous IMT-2000 wireless connection standards which have both been approved. A USIM standard for user authentication is actively being studied. In the present disclosure, the term SIM will be used to include both the UIM and the USIM.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates structures of smart cards using different schemes for communication with a smart card reader, i.e., different interfaces. Referring to FIG. 1, the smart cards include a contact card, a contactless card with near field communication (NFC) , a hybrid card, and a combination card. In particular, the combination card is a smart card having a loop antenna connected to a smart card chip, i.e., a contact and contactless smart card. The combination card is advantageously used in the fields of contact and contactless applications listed in Table 1. [Table 1]

In general, a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system is associated with the smart card described above. In the RFID system, a reader wirelessly communicates with an RFID tag attached to a product. The reader reads information from the RFID tag and provides the information to an artificial satellite or a mobile communication network, for management of information on all processes including production, circulation, storage, and consumption of products. The Ministry of Information and Communication in Korea defines the RFID as a U-sensor network service in which an electronic tag is attached to an object and information from the object is collected and processed for information exchange between entities, position measurement, remote processing, management, etc. The Ministry of Commence, Industry and Energy in Korea defines the RFID as a radio frequency recognition technique capable of reading and writing information to and from chips attached to persons, goods and vehicles in a contactless manner using a frequency. The Institute For Information Technology Advancement, a research institution in Korea, defines the RFID as "a technique by which a reader automatically recognizes data from tags, labels, and cards each having a microprocessor- chip using a radio frequency", and the Korean Electronics And Telecommunications Research Institute defines the RFID as a technique of recognizing objects in a contactless manner using a small IC chip based on a radio frequency and transferring information on a state of the objects obtained through object position recognition and path tracking to enterprise in real time. As described above, the RFID tag is similar in configuration with the smart card. Here, RFID tags are classified into active RFID tags having a power supply and passive RFID tags energized by an electromagnetic field formed by a reader rather than directly energized by an internal or external power supply. Meanwhile, mobile payment service refers to payment service to pay prices of services or goods that are sold online or offline, using a mobile communication terminal. This mobile payment service began along with increasing mobile communication services. Use of the mobile payment service has recently increased with the activation of wireless Internet and e-commerce and the advent of mobile Internet (e.g., WiBro) . Technically, the mobile payment service is classified into a smart card-based mobile payment service and non-card, wireless network-based mobile payment service. In particular, a card-based mobile communication terminal is generally equipped with a smart card slot on a rear side of the terminal to which a battery is mounted. Here, the smart card slot conforms to ISO 7816 that defines a standard of an IC chip for a smart card. A terminal's user must mount a smart card chip ("smart chip") provided by a mobile communication provider to the slot in order to use the above-described mobile payment service.

However, in the conventional card-based mobile payment service as described above, there is an annoyance in that a user must separately request that a financial company issuing a smart card provide its chip and mount the chip to his or her terminal. In addition, a user, when holding several smart chips, faces a difficulty of chip storage and annoyance of repeated chip replacement, resulting in low utilization. Moreover, a mobile communication terminal having such a smart chip, when lost, may leak personal credit information. [Disclosure] [Technical Problem]

An object of the present invention is to provide a contactless information processor mounted in a card slot of a mobile communication terminal for recognizing a smart card or an RFID tag that approaches the mobile communication terminal. [Technical Solution]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a contactless information processor including: an antenna connection port for connection to a loop antenna for a communication terminal; a power connection port connected to a power supply for the communication terminal for supplying power; a control logic for receiving a signal from the loop antenna to read at least one radio frequency identification tag, and controlling transmit of information on the read radio frequency identification tag to the exterior; a memory for storing an operating system for the control logic; a data connection port for transmitting the information on the read radio frequency identification tag to the exterior to be processed and displayed by the communication terminal, under control of the control logic; and a processor package mounted to the communication terminal according to a predetermined structural standard. The control logic may write external data to the read radio frequency identification tag via the loop antenna.

The control logic may receive a signal from the loop antenna to read at least one smart card, and write external data to the smart card via the loop antenna. The antenna connection port, the power connection port, and the data connection port may have structures conforming to ISO 7816.

A structural standard of the package may include a subscriber identity module (SIM) , a user identity module (UIM) , or a user subscriber identity module (USIM) .

The loop antenna may use a low frequency (LF) , high frequency (HF) or ultrahigh frequency (UHF) band. [Advantageous Effects]

The contactless information processor of the present invention as described is mounted in a card slot of a mobile cornmunication terminal and recognizes a smart card or an RFID tag approaching the mobile communication terminal, thereby eliminating an inconvenience of separately requesting a smart chip and inserting it into the card slot. Such a terminal can be utilized as a mobile reader for an RFID system. [Description of Drawings]

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates structures of smart cards using different schemes for communication with a smart card reader; FIG. 2 illustrates a mobile communication terminal applied to the present invention and a contactless information processor according to the present invention mounted to the mobile communication terminal;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a contactless information processor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a mobile communication terminal that may be applied to the present invention; and FIG. 5 illustrates use of a mobile communication terminal having a contactless information processor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of Symbols of Main Parts in Drawings> 100: Contactless information processor 110: Interface 120: Control logic 130: Memory 140: Smart card chip

200: Mobile communication terminal 210: Controller 220: RF transceiver 230: Image processor

235: Display 240: Sound processor 241: Speaker 243: microphone

250: Storage unit 260: Key input unit

270: Card slot 280: Loop antenna

[Mode for Invention]

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 2 illustrates a mobile communication terminal applied to the present invention and a contactless information processor according to the present invention mounted to the mobile communication terminal. Referring to FIG. 2, a card slot 270 is disposed on a rear side of a mobile communication terminal 200 on which a battery 280 is mounted. Here, a contactless information processor 100 for recognizing a contactless smart card or a contactless RFID tag, or a smart chip is mounted on the card slot 270. Although not shown, a loop antenna is embedded in the mobile communication terminal 200 and connected to the card slot 270. Here, a number of ports constituting the card slot 270, a spacing between the ports, and a location of each port are preferably determined in an ISO 7816 standard. Assignment of the ports conforming to the ISO 7816 standard is shown in Table 2 : [Table 2]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Program

Power Reset Clock Reserved Ground Data Reserved port port port port port input/output port

(Vcc) (RST) (CLK) (RFU) (GND) port (I/O) (RFU)

(Vpp/RFU)

More preferably, a structural standard of the card slot 270 conforms to the standard for the subscriber identity module (SIM), as discussed above. Accordingly, a package of the contactless information processor 100 preferably conforms to the structural standard of the SIM. The loop antenna is connected to Port 4 and Port 8 of the card slot 270, allowing the contactless information processor 100 mounted in the card slot 270 to recognize a smart card or an RFID tag approaching the loop antenna. For convenience of description, it is assumed that the contactless information processor 100 recognizes the RFID tag. Meanwhile, the loop antenna may be embedded in the battery 280 at a circumference thereof. This requires the mobile communication terminal 200 to have a component for connecting the loop antenna embedded in the battery 280 to the card slot 270 when the battery 280 is mounted to the mobile communication terminal 200. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a contactless information processor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, a contactless information processor 100 according to the present invention is mounted in the above-described mobile communication terminal 200, and includes an interface 110 connected to the ports of the card slot 270; a control logic 120 energized by the battery 280 connected to a power connection port Vcc of the interface 110 for supplying power from the battery to an RFID tag via the loop antenna connected to an antenna connection port Ant of the interface 110, receiving a signal from the loop antenna to authenticate and read the RFID tag according to a security algorithm, transmitting and receiving data to and from the mobile communication terminal 200 via a data connection port I/O of the interface 110, and writing data to the RFID tag via the loop antenna based on write permission authentication information received from the mobile communication terminal 200; and a memory 130 for storing a chip operating system (COS) , an algorithm for recognition of a smart card and an RFID tag, and temporary data. The contactless information processor 100 may further include a smart card chip 140, when necessary.

Preferably, the memory 130 includes a read only memory (ROM) for storing the chip operating system, the security algorithm, and a random-number generating program; and a random access memory (RAM) for storing the temporary data.

The smart card chip 140 will perform typical smart card functions, such as a traffic card function, Moneta or mobile banking function, etc.

Meanwhile, examples of the RFID tag include a read-only beacon tag having 1-bit capacity that is used merely for antitheft purposes, a read-only tag with a 32-bit or 64-bit capacity including unique tag identification data, and a readable/writable tag having a 512Kbyte or greater capacity whose content is arbitrarily modified by a user. The RFID tag mainly uses a frequency band of 125.134KHz, 13.56MHz, 433MHz, 860~960MHz or 2.45GHz. Accordingly, a signal transmitted and received between the contactless information processor 100 according to the present invention and the RFID tag is preferably in a low frequency (LF) band including 125.134KHz, a high frequency (HF) band including 13.56MHz, an ultrahigh frequency (UHF) band including 900MHz, or an international standard band. The mobile communication terminal 200 is a handheld wireless communication device with portability and mobility, such as a Personal Communication System (PCS) , a Personal Digital Cellular (PDC), a Personal Handy-phone System (PHS), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) , an IMT (International Mobile Telecommunication) -2000 terminal, a Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) phone, a smart phone, and a WiBro phone. Here, the WiBro provides high-speed Internet access with the same quality and at the same cost as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) even in a stationary or slowly moving state, unlike existing wireless Internet providing access over a mobile communication network or via a public wireless local area network (LAN) and an access point, based on a platform, such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or WIPI. A WiBro phone is a portable phone enabling such mobile Internet service.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the mobile communication terminal described above. The mobile communication terminal 200 applied to the present invention includes an RF transceiver 220 for transmitting and receiving a radio frequency signal to and from a base station via an antenna; a key input unit 260 for generating a key signal in response to operation of alphanumeric keys and functional keys; a storage unit 250 including a program storage unit for storing an operating system (OS) of a terminal or various applications, such as financial application for mobile payment service, and a data storage unit for temporarily storing computational result data or storing user-set data; a microphone 243 for converting an external sound wave to an analog sound signal; a speaker 241 for converting an internal analog sound signal to a sound wave; a sound processor 240 for converting the analog sound signal input from the microphone 243 to a digital sound signal, converting the digital sound signal to an analog sound signal, and outputting the analog sound signal to the speaker 241; a display 235; an image processor 230 for processing an image signal directed to the display 235; a card slot 270 to which the contactless information processor 100 is mounted; a loop antenna 280 connected to the card slot; and a controller 210 for controlling the above components. In particular, the controller 210 controls the contactless information processor 100 mounted on the card slot 270 and generally controls all components for mobile payment service using an embedded financial application based on RFID tag information received from the contactless information processor 100. FIG. 5 illustrates use of a mobile communication terminal having a contactless information processor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the mobile communication terminal 200 receives card information from the smart card 300 approaching the terminal 200 via the contactless information processor 100 mounted in the card slot 270. The mobile communication terminal 200 then receives a smart card's password from the user, and accesses a financial server issuing the smart card to perform financial transactions, such as transfer between accounts, charge of a pre-paid card, payment for goods purchased at an online shopping mall, and payment at a credit card franchise.

The contactless information processor of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment but may be changed without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. For example, a mobile communication terminal having the contactless information processor according to the present invention may be utilized as a reader for an RFID system for recognizing products, animals, containers, or the like to which RFID tags are attached. Although the contactless information processor of the present invention is preferably detachable in a slot manner described above, it may be detachable in a slide manner in which an entire package of the contactless information processor is inserted into the mobile communication terminal, depending on a structure of the mobile communication terminal. Although the contactless information processor of the present invention is preferably mounted to mobile communication terminals, it may be mounted to notebook computers or other mobile devices .

While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

[CLAIMS] [Claim 1]

A contactless information processor comprising: an antenna connection port for connection to a loop antenna for a communication terminal; a power connection port connected to a power supply for the communication terminal for supplying power; a control logic for receiving a signal from the loop antenna to read at least one radio frequency identification tag, and controlling transmit of information on the read radio frequency identification tag to the exterior; a memory for storing an operating system for the control logic; a data connection port for transmitting the information on the read radio frequency identification tag to the exterior to be processed and displayed by the communication terminal, under control of the control logic; and a processor package mounted to the communication terminal according to a predetermined structural standard.

[Claim 2]

The processor of claim 1, wherein the control logic writes external data to the read radio frequency- identification tag via the loop antenna.

[Claim 3] The processor of claim 1 or 2, wherein the control logic receives a signal from the loop antenna to read at least one smart card, and writes external data to the smart card via the loop antenna.

[Claim 4]

The processor of claim 1, wherein the antenna connection port, the power connection port, and the data connection port have structures conforming to ISO 7816.

[Claim 5] The processor of claim 1, wherein a structural standard of the package includes a subscriber identity module (SIM) , a user identity module (UIM) , or a user subscriber identity module (USIM) .

[Claim 6] The processor of claim 1, wherein the loop antenna uses a low frequency (LF) , high frequency (HF) or ultrahigh frequency (UHF) band.